This charming spot in the small village of Zogaj is easy to miss, but worth seeking out. Delicious fish soup, mussels, salmon bruschetta and grilled squid. Worth the drive.
📍3CC2+FH3, Zogaj, Shkodër 4001
We rode our rented bicycles 11.7 km from our Shkodër apartment to the small village of Zogaj several times during our stay. On three occasions we had lunch here and were for the most part impressed.
The view of the lake from the restaurant (both the indoor/outdoor upper level and the open air lower terrace) is truly lovely. It’s worth a trip just to chill with a cold soda and gaze out at the lake, and to go for a swim if you’re so inclined.
As for the food, for the most part it was very good. Our first lunch was fish soup, followed by a platter of Shrimp & Mushrooms in Saffron Orange Sauce. The shrimp dish was outstanding; the fish soup was over-salted, which we were able to moderate somewhat with lots of freah squeezed lemon juice.
Our second lunch was the best of the three. We shared a very generous plate (six pieces) of Salmon Bruschetta, a lovely plate of deep fried crab balls, and a scrumptious platter of grilled squid. Every dish was tasty, and servings were very generous.
Our final lunch was something of a mixed bag. We’d been drooling over the Cheese Baked with Sesame and Honey, but when it arrived we were quite disappointed. The cheese was overly salty, and the watery honey was easily the least sweet we’ve ever tasted. The dish was OK, but could be so much better. The platter of baked mussels was absolutely huge, and the mussels were plump and delicious. Though the broth was surprisingly bland (it would be much better with some some garlic and white wine) the natural deliciousness of the mussels made up for that shortcoming. The most disappointing dish of all was the grilled carp (not pictured here). The thinly sliced steak was badly over cooked, to the point of being dry, tough and tasteless. The kitchen was slammed that day as they were hosting a large party on the lower terrace, but nothing cooked that poorly should ever make it to a customer’s table.
That brings us to service. The young staff at Pelikan are earnest and friendly, but they are far from professional. Service is routinely slow and if you don’t speak Albanian there is definitely a language barrier. On average our lunches (which all included a 750ml bottle of sparkling water) came to 2,100L, a generally fair price for the quality of food and the awesome view.
We recommend a visit – just don’t order the carp!.
Fish Soup
This is one of the most popular soups in Albania. Simple and delicious with the addition of lots of lemon to cut the saltiness.
Salmon Bruschetta
Delicious Balkan salmon with buratta, a very fine balsamic vinegar on crispy, delicious crostini.
Crab Balls
Exactly what the name implies: delicious shredded crab prepared croquette-style and served with crab claw "handles". Fun to eat and delicious!
Grilled Squid
The char on this juicy, flame kissed squid was simply delicious. We could have eaten two platter of these!
Baked Mussels
Showing you this with human arms included for scale. This was a massive platter of fabulous mussels, baked to plum perfection. The wine sauce with garlic was a bit bland, but with bread for mopping and wine you're set for a pretty good afternoon!
Baked cheese with sesame and honey
We can't tell you what kind of cheese this was, but it was akin to halloumi. However, it was much too salty for our taste. That should have been offset by a sweet honey-sesame seed bath, but this version was watery and barely sweet at all. We'd love to try this again sometime as we believe the kitchen just missed it that day.
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